Ingenious Mix

Vic Open Format Could Preview The Future For Men And Women
Way down south in the land Down Under, on a stretch of coastline so remote that a famous convict escapee, William Buckley, once lived undiscovered with an Aboriginal tribe for 32 years, a small golf revolution is underway.

For the past seven years, the ISPS Handa Vic Open – an Australian state championship first held in 1957 – has staged men’s and women’s events concurrently, on the same courses, at the same time, for equal prize money.

The 13th Beach Golf Links, which is 70 miles south of Melbourne, Victoria’s capital city, boasts two lovely seaside layouts, the Beach and the Creek, and it is here that the women play alongside the men under exactly the same tournament conditions. With galleries allowed to walk behind them on the fairways.

The women play the Beach one day and the Creek the next – the men vice-versa – and, after 36- and 54-hole cuts are made, they have alternate tee times on the Beach course over the weekend.

It’s a format unique to professional go...